features: 3,000 sq. metres of outdoor space and houses the company’s National Distribution Centre (NDC), Sustainable Building Centre (SBC) and a European Data Centre used by a number of Wolseley companies.
John Page, Site Facilities Manager at Wolseley UK, said: “We led the way in sustainable building when we opened the SBC, the UK’s first commercial showcase for sustainable building products and construction methods, in 2008.
“Since then, we’ve continued to invest in initiatives that reduce our environmental impact and offer business benefits because it’s the right thing to do and it makes complete financial sense. For example, we future proof new site projects, so that we can take advantage of new renewable technology as it comes along.”
With its environmental activity verified through ISO14001 certification, Wolseley UK’s green initiatives are far reaching, encompassing everything from cutting edge renewable installations to the creation of wild habitats on its RLS site.
To date, the biggest single impact is being achieved by the installation of photovoltaic (PV) panels covering a roof area of 13,113m² - roughly the size of two football pitches – on its NDC. The installation consists of 8020 PV panels, along with 24 inverters. A year after installation, the panels have generated 1,724,560kW, equivalent to the electricity used by 522 homes in the UK during the same period. This represents an improvement of 16% on the anticipated figure and has enabled the NDC to reduce its demand from the grid by 27%. The long-term forecast of the installation predicts that it could generate £6.5million for the company over two years with the government’s Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) for commercial buildings, based on twenty megawatt hours of electricity. Associated carbon savings are estimated to be in the region of 1,280 tonnes per year.
An additional energy-saving feature of the PV installation is the use of exhaust air from the inverters, which is channelled into the building’s heating system, potentially generating around 80kW of additional heat.
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While the PV panels generate power for the business, other measures have been introduced to reduce consumption, the most recent being the replacement of 2,359 light fittings in the NDC with LED lighting, designed to achieve annual energy savings of £100,000. The project has seen Wolseley UK become one of just 18 businesses in the Country to win a place on the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s energy Demand Reduction (EDR) scheme.
John Page, Site Facilities Manager, Wolseley UK, said: “We want to show that green building solutions make sense. The successes we’ve had prove that a well-developed and properly implemented environmental and waste management programme can pay dividends both for the business and for the environment.
“A year after
installation, the panels have generated 1,724,560kW,
equivalent to the
electricity used by 522 homes in the UK.”
“The UK has committed to reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 and the construction industry needs to play a part in that. What better way to showcase the renewable technology we sell, than to use it ourselves?”
For the last three years, Wolseley UK’s entire Leamington Spa site has been zero waste to direct landfill. This has resulted from a complete change in the way that waste is handled, with 99.8% of waste at the NDC and 97.5% of waste from the Wolseley Center now recyclable. Just 2.7% of the site’s entire waste total is compacted and sent for incineration to generate electricity.
Wolseley UK worked with waste management and recycling specialists Biffa to analyse its waste and implement a system to achieve the zero waste to landfill ambition, which also gives the company the maximum levels of
rebate on recycling. John Page explained: “From the outset, we realised that it was essential to embed a culture of environmental awareness across the whole site. To make it work, we had to bring our entire workforce along with us. We needed 100% commitment, so we educated employees about why we were making changes and tried to pique their interest in our green agenda, with initiatives including a competition to name the worm farms we installed to process our vegetarian food waste.”
Compost created by the worm farm is used on plants at the site and a wild meadow has been specifically created to encourage ground- nesting birds, voles and indigenous flowers. The company has even helped to save a small population of bee orchids, a rare species of grassland plant which was under threat from development on a nearby site. The bee orchids, indigenous to Warwickshire, were successfully re- homed in the meadow.
Wolseley UK’s achievements have been recognised by the Carbon Trust and are reflected in the site’s BREEAM “excellent” rating. In 2013, the company achieved the Carbon Trust Standard recertification in recognition of its work to measure, manage and reduce carbon emissions. The Carbon Trust certified that between August 2010 and July 2012, the company reduced its absolute carbon emissions by 32.8% and its qualitative assessment score of 82.5% demonstrated “effectiveness at responding to climate change through governance, carbon accounting and carbon management.”
John concludes: “Wolseley UK is committed to protecting and enhancing the built and natural environments and making a contribution to national energy- saving and waste-reduction targets. We’ve had real success installing renewable products and implementing clever building management and environmental practises and we are happy to share our expertise with anyone looking to do the same.”
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